Obama Pastor's Fiery Sermons Part of Long Prophetic Tradition
March 17, 2008
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March 14, 2008
The outgoing pastor of Sen. Barack Obama's black megachurch in Chicago has come under fire for sermons that some have called racist, offensive, even dangerous.
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright has called the federal government the "U.S. of K.K.K. A." Just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Wright said "America's chickens are coming home to roost," according to a review of his sermons by ABC News.
Observers of the black church say Wright's sermons may seem incendiary or uncomfortably provocative, but they reflect a proud history of what Walter Earl Fluker of Morehouse College in Atlanta calls "prophetic preaching, which is the trademark of the black church tradition, of which Jeremiah Wright is perhaps one of the most illustrious exemplars."
Peter Paris, professor emeritus of Christian social ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, attended seminary with Wright in the 1960s and said Wright fits in the prophetic tradition of both the black church and the Bible.
"Prophets are basically reformers and not revolutionaries," said Paris, an Obama supporter. "There's a line beyond which one is no longer prophetic but one is revolutionary. He's not there, but the language may appear from time to time to be there."
On Friday (March 14) afternoon, Obama's office released a statement in which he said, "I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy."
"While Rev. Wright's statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in."
